Sunrise portrait time at the beach

[sarah_lange1]

<p>I have a family that wants a morning beach portrait session. Sunrise is at 5:10 a.m. Is it realistic to ask them to come out then? If not, how late after sunrise will I still get nice light? I usually shoot in evening. They cannot do it in the evening.<br /> Thank you.</p>

[Palouse]

<p>Magic hour is said to extend less than an hour either side of sunrise or sunset.</p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Hi Sarah, there's is an interesting discussion here about whether anyone can tell the difference between sunrise and sunset photos:<br>

<a href="/photo/1953217">http://www.photo.net/photo/1953217</a></p>

<p>As to your question, it really depends on the direction the beach is facing and the type of shots you're after. I would suggest, if possible, to be at the beach 30 minutes before sunrise and stay until you're done. It'll give some time for everyone to loosen up and for you to make judgments about when to take a shot. </p>

<p>The light changes rapidly during the 20 minute window right around the transition so you can get a range of moods if you're well prepared. </p>

<p>Bring a flash if you do go early. </p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>You need to personally be at the intended location for a dry run (without the family) on a previous day so you can see what the sun does. The perfect light will last for just a few minutes, and you need to be really ready for it. Remember that getting a family in ship-shape takes several minutes at least (are they wrangling small kids? is the family dog going to be in the shot?) so it's easily appropriate to have them on hand for half an hour before you expect the light to be perfect.<br /><br />On your scouting trip, bring something you can stick in the sand (if you don't have a willing test victim) to approximate a human subject so you can see plainly how faces are going to catch the light and whether/how you'll need to drag that shutter and use some fill flash. If you're using a flash, don't forget to bring some CTO so you don't have jarring color temp mis-matches.<br /><br />And: weather forecast weather forecast weather forecast! Try to scout on a morning that will approximate the same cloud cover, etc, as the day you expect to shoot.</p>

[paul_k1664875007]

<p>from a light quality point of view, I would wait for maybe 15 minutes after sunrise, not more, to start, as the window for the best light is as said around one hour after sunrise and in case of sunset maybe 1 hour before sundown.</p>

<p>However, as you are planning to shoot a family, keep in mind that temperaturewise, shooting a sunrise may not be the best moment, unless of course you are at a location with warm nights.</p>

<p>Otherwise shooting especially a few freezing kids might a bit of a challenge.</p>

 

[Palouse]

<p>There is an iPhone app, "Magic Hour" that attempts to pinpoint the time the best light lasts. For example, for sunset today for my home location, golden hour starts at 7:58 pm, sunset is at 8:45, and ends at 9:25.</p>

[sarah_lange1]

<p>Thank you very much everyone. This is really helpful. </p>

[starshooter]

<p>Good luck. This is not an easy task.</p>

[dave_redmann]

<p>As a general proposition,* it's pretty simple: figure out what time works in the evening, look up the sun's altitude at that time, and then look up when the sun has the same altitude in the morning. The U.S. Naval Observatory will calculate it for you: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/AltAz.php. Obviously the sun will be in a very different place on the horizon, but that affects what is front-lit and what is back-lit, not the basic quality of the light.</p>

<p>Example: today, here, sunset was at 8:02 p.m. local time; if I got the light I wanted 30 minutes before sunset, that would be 7:32 p.m. The sun's elevation was at 5.6 degrees at that time. The sun's elevation was <em>also</em> at 5.6 degrees at 6:31 a.m. local time. Of course, the sun rose from ENE and set at WNW, so the background / sun direction you'd get for a given quality of light differs.</p>

<p>*Cloud cover, wind, tides, and other things that may affect shooting conditions may differ substantially between sunrise and sunset, but those are outside the scope of the question.</p>

 

[studio460]

<p>Nick said:</p>

<blockquote>

<p><em>Magic hour is said to extend less than an hour either side of sunrise or sunset. . . .</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Additionally, the so-called, "magic hour," is a window of time long-favored by cinematographers (and, still photographers) for capturing deep-hued, darkened-blue skies, caught during the precious few minutes approximately 20-30 minutes preceeding a sunrise, or 20-30 minutes after the sun has set. Unfortunately, the best part of magic hour really only lasts about 10 minutes.</p>

<p>Location: Los Angeles; time of year: Spring, 7 April 2011.</p>

<p>06:49 PM PDT--28 minutes prior to sunset (camera is facing north):<br /> <img src="http://studio460.com/studio460/magic1.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>07:17 PM PDT--sunset (camera is facing south):<br /> <img src="http://studio460.com/studio460/magic2.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>07:45 PM PDT--magic hour "begins:"<br /> <img src="http://studio460.com/studio460/magic3.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>07:55 PM PDT--magic hour "ends:"<br /> <img src="http://studio460.com/studio460/magic4.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[studio460]

<p>"Magic hour" look with "white" fill-flash:</p>

<p>Note that frames #1 and #2 (above) are daylight-balanced. Frames #3 and #4 are tungsten-balanced in order to shift the sky's color-rendering even blue-er. If I had a subject in the scene, I could use a Speedlight through a softbox (very little light level is required at this time of day), with tungsten-correction gel taped to the Speedlight. Then I would manually set a Kelvin temperature of 2,500-degrees in my camera (a Nikon D3s in this case), since tungsten-correction is often too warm. This would still get you the blue-er sky, but yield a "neutral" white-light key.</p>

[studio460]

<p>"Sunrise" morning look:</p>

<p>Alternatively, Sarah (since, I think this is the specific shot you were actually asking about), you could allow the sun to just crest the horizon, and shift the camera's white balance more toward a daylight-balance in order to let the morning sun's low color temperature record "warm." You would also need to match that color temperature using color-correction gel on any flash used (e.g., full-, 3/4-, or 1/2-CTO), if you want the "warm" light to also illuminate your subjects (using a reflector instead would do this naturally). I would manually set the cooler color temperature in-camera. Try experimenting between, say 4,300K-5,300K. Back it off when it starts to look too weird. If not supplementing with flash, shoot RAW, and simply adjust white balance to taste in post.</p>

<p>But realize that you only have a few minutes of highly-filtered, sunrise light. As soon as the sun breaks the horizon, and punches through any atmospheric haze (which softens the light quality), things get bright and ugly within just a few minutes. This window is often very short, and dependent on local atmospheric conditions. The presence of haze, cloud-cover, marine-layer, smog, etc. extends this window; conversely, the lack of any of these conditions shortens the window.</p>

[Spearhead]

<p>Those don't look much like portraits. Light on a city, especially at night, is very different than light on a face.</p>

[michaelmowery]

<p>Ralph just so your not confusing anyone your evening shots you call "the Magic hour" are really "Dusk shots" which is after the sun has set. This is not the same as "the golden hour" which is before sunset which is favored by photographers when shooting people. These are two different senarios. The Dusk shots require flash fill. The golden hour uses the natural soft rays of the setting sun light. Sarah has asked for morning shots which is done just at sunrise using the same soft rays of the rising sun light. Michael Chang you are also confusing twilite and dusk shots for the golden hour. Dusk and Dawn shot are also refered to as the "Blue hour","sweet light" and "painters light" </p>

[studio460]

<p>Additionally, while the so-called "magic hour" is fairly predicable, "golden hour" is often much less so, and far more dependent on local atmospheric conditions. In Los Angeles, due to our seemingly ever-present marine layer, haze, and smog, golden hour is actually pretty rare here. The color temperature often drops only a few hundred degrees as the sun sets in L.A., and rarely renders the type of golden, postcard-like sunsets as seen in the tropics, or in areas where the atmosphere is much clearer. While an atmosphere dense with moisture or pollutants helps to significantly soften the light quality, it actually attenuates any reduction in color temperature.</p>

[LenMarriott]

<p>Sarah, Unless I missed it in the above comments another advantage of sunset photos over sunrise photos is the dew factor. It is more likely to be dewy or damp in the mornings as opposed to sunsets which, unless it has rained during the day, will likely provide a drier environment. Especially important if the group must be seated on the ground or log or bench or whatever. Don't forget to post some of your results. Check out <a href="http://montezucker.com/">this guy's site</a>. He could get great outdoor portraits no matter the time of day. Best, LM. </p>